Blade 4 needs to get made ASAP by Marvel Studios

Just one year after “Batman & Robin” appeared to send the comic book movie genre to extinction, Wesley Snipes starred in “Blade,” which for all intents and purposes saved the genre and led to us enjoying films like “X-Men,” “The Dark Knight” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

No arguments accepted people. Before “Blade,” Marvel Comics couldn’t get any of its heroes on the big screen (kindly ignore “Howard the Duck“) but the $70 million hit showed Hollywood execs that there was life, more specifically, big time money, in comic book movie films beyond Superman and Batman.

Now 16 years later, Snipes says he’s ready to suit up one more time to kill some vampires.

“I’d be open to it,” Snipes told MTV when asked if he’d return to the character. “We have some stones left unturned, and there’s some latitude for us to build on. I’d love to get back in the suit again and do some things that I’ve learned to do now that I didn’t know how to do then. I think we’re better at making that kind of a film now.”

And with Snipes game, Marvel Studios, which has control of the “Blade” movie license, should absolutely move forward quickly in making this happen.

While Marvel Studios has made gold out of pretty much everything it touches, the one big knock on its movie division has been its lack of diverse heroes.

There’s nearly as many green heroes (Hulk, “Guardian’s” Drax and Gamora) as there are black heroes (Falcon, Nick Fury, War Machine/Iron Patriot and “Thor’s” Heimdell). There’s just one Asian (“Thor’s” Hogun) and surprisingly no Latino in a significant role. Michael Pena (“End of Watch“) has a yet to be announced role in “Ant-Man,” but for all the twisting of the character’s origin, there wasn’t necessarily a reason why he couldn’t have played the title role.

Fast-tracking “Blade 4” would silence the dissatisfied masses who want to see a black hero starring in his own film as opposed to playing the sidekick role to another character. If nothing else, it would allow filmmakers a bit more time to figure out how to translate Black Panther on to the big screen.

Unlike some of the other MS $100 million films, Blade doesn’t require a massive budget. The 2007 vampire action/thriller “30 Days of Nights” packed a lot of scary vampire effects into its $32 million budget. Marvel Studios could make a great Blade film for under $80 million since the biggest expense (after Snipes’ salary) is vampire death scenes and some cool displays of their power.

And really, this is a franchise that Marvel Studios doesn’t have to introduce to audiences. Snipes made Blade such an impressionable character that he’d easily slide back into the role. Add in a few Marvel horror characters (Morbius anyone?) cameos, this could easily be an easy slot for a Phase 3 Marvel Studios film.